COPD: A Breath of Canned Air
Can using an inhaled corticosteroid cut your chances of getting lung cancer?
BY:MYRA DEMBROW
A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) may give COPD patients some protection against lung cancer.During the four years of the study, 402 of 9,957 male veterans (about four percent) who did not take an ICS developed lung cancer. That compares with 16 of 298 patients (about 5.4 percent) who used less than 1,200 micrograms (mcg) of ICS per day, and five of 219 patients (about 2.3 percent) who used more than 1,200 mcg of ICS per day.
Basically, those who used more than 1,200 mcg of ICS per day were about half as likely to develop lung cancer.
The researchers at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, led by David H. Au, MD, MS, speculated that ICS cut the cancer risk by reducing local airway inflammation, cell turnover and the propagation of genetic errors.